The present invention relates to a heated football glove that is carefully designed to provide warmth to a football player's hands when performing in cold weather or severe weather conditions.
The prior art in general does not address the need for a football glove for use in extreme cold and wet weather. Prior art gloves designed for golf, baseball, or other sports do not suffice because they are not provided with the appropriate tightness of fit, impact resistance or adhesion properties for grasping or catching a ball.
In particular, for players on offense, football gloves need to be designed with the goal of maintaining ball control, primarily to facilitate catching the ball and or holding onto it when being tackled. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,155 discloses a football glove that includes a glove body having first and second regions, the first region including approximately the front half of the glove including the front half of all the fingers and all of the thumb region, the first region having a rubber-like softened PVC surface layer which is waterproof and has characteristics to improve catching of the football.
In addition to the use of tack material on the palm and fingers to assist in catching or grasping the ball, conventional high performance football gloves also provide a variety of additional features and benefits to protect the wearer's hand, improve comfort, and enhance performance, including:                Breathable materials optionally with ventilation to allow sweat to pass through the glove structure and keep hands cool. Also, a mesh can be provided between the fingers, and ventilated backhands to improve air flow, release hot air, and generally keep the hands cool, dry, and comfortable.        Padding such as lightweight, flexible foam padding in the palm or back side of the glove are typical in advanced lineman gloves, and help soften impacts to protect the hand.        The use of high quality materials that allow the gloves to perform in all weather conditions. The improved strength of such materials keeps them functioning season after season. These materials have properties that typically include stretchable, synthetic materials with seamless or reinforced seamed construction.        
While the foregoing designs and materials are useful in warm or moderate weather or when playing under a dome or indoors, they do not help the wearer keep his hands warm when the game is played on an outdoor field in cold or frigid weather with or without rain, snow and sleet. In particular, the breathable construction of the glove does not help keep the wearer's hands warm when exposed to very cold or frigid weather conditions. Also, when exposed to rain or snow conditions, moisture can enter into the glove through the breathable or mesh areas, thus detrimentally affecting the feeling and condition of the wearer's hands and the ability of the player to properly perform.
The use of heating in various gloves is disclosed in a number of patent documents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,606,614, 4,543,671, 4,764,665, 4,950,868, and 6,141,801 and US patent application 2004/0244090. None of these gloves, however, are suitable for use as a football glove, nor can they be modified for use in a football game.
A summary of general football gloves that are designed to provide warmth to the user's hands can be found in US patent publication 2011/0214221. None of the gloves disclosed in that application have any kind of heating means, however, such that their use in extremely cold weather is generally ineffective. And as a player's hands become cold due to exposure to low temperatures for extended periods of time, they are not able to properly catch or hold onto the football with dropped passes or fumbles as a result. Thus use of a tack coating provides some benefit but it cannot completely compensate for or remedy the disadvantages of extremely cold hands that are trying to catch or hold a ball.
Thus, there remains a need for a football glove that can be used in cold and wet weather conditions which provides the appropriate fit, warmth for the hands and appropriate surface properties to facilitate handling of the football. The present invention now satisfied these needs.